Bus Crash
by Archer 250
Summary: My second tragedy one-shot. Enjoy.


**As you may know, I have a thing about traffic accidents. I've already written a fic with one, and I thought "Why not another?" and thus, this fic was conceived. **

Leo threw their last packs into the bus. Now they were ready to depart. The two cats were on a trip to another city. Coincidentally that day was Aeris' birthday.

The two cats climbed into the bus and took their seats. There were only a handful of people on the bus: Smith the driver, and a three other passengers.

"This is going to be a long travel," said Leo pointing to his iPod, "Good thing I have this."

"Put that down," Aeris quickly interjected, "I want to talk to you."

"About what?" he asked.

"Anything," she replied, "I just want to talk to you as long as I can."

"Err… are you alright?" Leo asked, "Is this about your birthday gift? If so, then I'll get it for you when we get there."

"Thanks," Aeris replied, "But it's not about that, I just want to talk to you."

"About what?" Leo asked.

"Anything except video games"

"Okay," he said "Why are we going to this city in particular?"

"My parents live there," Aeris replied, "And I haven't seen them in ages. I've told you that for ten times already!"

"Oh, meeting the parents." said Leo, "Which graveyard are we going to?"

Leo was jesting of course. He knew full well that Aeris' parents are alive and well. Aeris did not take the joke well, and threw her backpack at him.

"Fuck you!" she said "I wish I could get rid of you!"

"I shouldn't have asked you for a chat." she said.

"Let's play cards then" Leo suggested, trying to ease the tension.

Aeris was not amused, but decided to tag along and replied, "Sure."

After a short game, Leo won with an ace of spades. "Guess you owe me a drink when we get in town!" he bragged his victory, "Want a rematch?"

"No, I'm off to sleep," said Aeris "I was up all night packing our baggage." And with that she moved to a comfortable position and laid herself down to sleep.

As hours passed, Leo noticed one of his cards on the floor near the front of the bus and he walked up the bus to retrieve it. Suddenly without warning, the bus swerved to the side and skidded off the road and flipped on its side.

Leo fared better; he only had a slight concussion and a bruise on his forehead. After he recovered he turned around to find Aeris, but she was not there. "She must have climbed out when I was stunned" he thought, and climbed out himself to find her. Aeris was not there. But he saw that one of the other passengers was dead.

When the bus skidded off the road, Aeris was thrown outside, knocking her unconscious as she landed in a trench before the bus flipped, trapping her in the trench. When she came to, she yelled as loud as she could for help.

"Help me!" she yelled, "I'm stuck in this trench! The bus trapped me in the trench!"

All heard her cries for help. But help, none could give.

After half an hour, the police force had the bus lifted up by a crane. But they all knew that the cable would not hold for long. As it the bus was being lifted, Leo sprinted pass the paramedics and the officers, rushing to his friend's side.

"I'm getting you out of here." he said as he lifted his friend to her feet. No sooner had they began to walk when the cable snapped, dropping the bus down again.

But Leo's reflexes were fast even by cat's standards and he pushed his friend out of the path.

Aeris fell to the ground, and when she looked back, but Leo was no more. The bus crushed Leo, breaking every bone in his body, and killed him instantly. The thunderous sound of the bush crashing was a death knell to Aeris.

Cold rang the echoes of the wish that Aeris had made earlier, "I wish I could get rid of you!"

Of course, she never meant for it to pass, yet it happened. The paramedics moved her to the ambulance without trouble, for she was in shock and witless.

She was released from the hospital after a few days of recovery. However, it was plain that she never recovered from the experience of losing her closest friend. Her parents retrieved her from the hospital and she lived with them for a while.

As months passed, a funeral was held for Leo, and all of his friends came to pay respect, and Aeris never allowed anyone, including herself, to slander Leo ever again. His ash was scattered afterwards by his parents. Leo's death was blamed on icy road, but Aeris was not convinced. She remembered that on the date of the event, the temperature was well above zero, impossible for black ice to cover the road. She blamed the driver, suspecting him of sleeping at the wheels, but she had no proof. And she would gather information from various sources, trying to find evidence against the driver. As of late, Aeris rarely socializes; she spoke seldom, and coldly and rashly when she does. This behavior led to a confrontation with her mother, "Aeris, darling you need to stop this nonsense," she said to her daughter "It's not helping you, and the police are already investigating."

But to that Aeris said: "I don't believe the cops are capable of doing anything. Was it not their failure that killed Leo?"

And her mother troubled her no more. But Aeris filed a lawsuit against the driver.

A year passed, and the time has come for the trial. The prosecutor, relying on information that Aeris had gathered, accused the driver severely. Yet the judge did not find him guilty, due to lack of concrete evidence.

And that decree embitters Aeris all the more. When she returned to her apartment in Toronto, she found it bleak and bare, lifeless and still. She walked into Leo's room to tidy it. As she was tidying it, she found a card: an ace of spades, but not the same one that Leo had drawn, a year ago.

Aeris looked at the card, and let a tear drop from her eye. "Thanks for saving me, Leo." she said. But the note refilled her with the resolve to find proof that the bus driver – Mr. Smith – was responsible. "I swear I'll bring him to justice!" she yelled, and decided to pay the driver a visit.

She walked to the bus driver's address that he had given her a year before. As she approaches the house, she noticed him drinking in the garage. She called out for him. The driver looked messy and his house and garage were very dirty.

"How can I help you, miss?" he replied, "I thought the judge had already found me innocent."

"I do not doubt that you were awake, Mr. Smith" said Aeris, "But is there's something wrong with the bus itself? Has an accident like this happened with the bus before?"

"No, never" he answered, taking a gulp of stout beer lying on his workbench. Then a revelation shocked Aeris nearly as much as when Leo died.

"You were drunk weren't you?" she asked the driver.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Were you drunk on that day?" Aeris asked again, advancing in on him, "Answer me, you son of a bitch."

But the driver would not take slander from a psychopathic woman, walking towards him like a thug, "I will not be cornered in my own house like a rat!"

Aeris could not reply to that, but said "You took from me my friend."

"He was an idiot and ran under the bus." he said.

Aeris would have attacked him for slandering her deceased friend, but she restrained herself.

Now it was Smith's turn to get angry, "Ever since that accident, I have been charged for sleeping at the wheel, I had to go to court just to clear my name, and you still dogged me."

"Because of the charges, I've been fired, my wife has left me, and yet you're still here to make my life miserable."

"Were you drunk at the time of the accident?" Aeris asked for the third time.

"Yes, I had a hangover that day. I was drinking the night before." he answered.

He pulled out a gun and aimed it at Aeris, "If you miss him so much, then why don't you join him in hell?"

"You didn't have the guts to admit that you were responsible for the accident. You don't have the guts to fire." said Aeris, defiantly.

"Good." he said, and fired.

Aeris fell to the floor and slowly bleeds. The police force heard the gunshot and mobilized to capture Smith.

But they could do nothing to save Aeris' life. She bleeds to death, but without anguish. Somehow, she felt numb as if she was watching all her death happen from a mile away. Her sight started to falter, until she could see no more and the darkness took her.

So passed Aeris, slain by the same hands that took from her Leo, dearest of friends.

Smith was found guilty of murder and driving under the influence of alcohol. He has been sentenced for life imprisonment. On one morning, the warden found him hanging by his neck on a mattress in his cell.

**And here ends my second tragedy fic. The third will have more deaths in it. **_**Much **_**more deaths (Estimated to be billions). **


End file.
